24/08/2011 Reporting Scotland

Welcome to Reporting Scotland. Tonight on your national news:

Amid the chaos in Libya, the Scottish authorities say they've

lost contact with the Lockerbie bomber. One victim's father says

he's worried for Megrahi's life. think he's at great risk of being

assassinated by the by the incoming rebels or perhaps being snatched by

an American special forces team. The Deputy Prime Minister tells us

he wants to see Megrahi back behind bars. Also ahead in tonight's

programme: The calamitous modifications to

this boat which led to the deaths of three fishermen.

Rubbish reviews - just how well do festival shows clean up after

themselves? And as Rangers' new Americans fly

in and fly the flag, UEFA throw out a claim the club illegally fielded

one of them in last week's Europa As fighting continues in the Libyan

capital, Tripoli, Scottish officials are still trying to

establish the fate of the Lockerbie bomber. Abdel Basset al-Megrahi has

been in the city since the Scottish government freed him two years ago.

Part of the terms of his release was that the local council where

Megrahi's family last lived had to maintain contact. Our home affairs

correspondent, Reevel Alderson, is outside the headquarters of East

It does seem odd that one of Scotland's smallest local

authorities should be tasked with keeping tabs on the country's

biggest mass murderer, but al- Megrahi, although freed from prison

just over two years ago, remains on life licence and subject,

theoretically at least, to recall to prison if he breaches the terms

of that licence, which do include keeping in regular contact with

officials here. But it is clearly a far from easy task to keep in

contact with a man like al-Megrahi in the chaos which is Tripoli.

The situation in Tripoli remains far from stable. Forces loyal to

Colonel Gaddafi are clashing with insurgents and there are now

reports of looting and lawlessness. In the midst of this, a Scottish

nurse is working in a clinic in the city. Over the last 24 hours we

have probably had our worst experiences. Yesterday we had about

10 victims of a gun battle, which was very unnerving. We had rebels

using our compound. I have got a bullet hole in my bedroom window.

In the calm of the West Lothian town of Linlithgow, Dr Jim Swire,

who lost his daughter in the Lockerbie bombing, is now concerned

about the man convicted of murdering her. I think he is at

great risk of being assassinated either by the rebels or being

snatched by an American special forces team. But if he escapes that,

the question will be, how will the rebels, when they are victorious,

deal with him? I fear they will hand him over to the Americans.

Megrahi was last seen a month ago attending a pro-Gaddafi rally. East

Renfrewshire council officials are supposed to keep in regular contact

with him but they have not spoken to him since August VII and are now

desperately trying to contact him. -- August 8th. We are satisfied he

has been in Tripoli and up until now there has not been any problem,

but clearly it is a war zone there and we will continue to try to

reach him. The UK have no diplomatic presence in triply so

they can't help trace him, but the Deputy Prime Minister insists that

Libyan should never have been released. My personal view it is I

would like to see al-Megrahi behind bars. Whatever you think, he was

convicted in a court of law for one of the most atrocious terrorist

acts this country has ever seen. But at the end of the day, this is

an issue for the Scottish government and them alone.

Scottish government says it was Westminster which sought to foster

relations with the Libyan dictator. In was under Scottish government

that was dealing with Colonel Gaddafi, it was the British

government. It was British ministers who glad handed him with

in the desert and elsewhere. The Scottish government followed the

rules and regulations that would apply to any prisoner, up

irrespective of their nationality and the crime they committed.

the hunt for McGraw he continues, it is hoped the eventual fall of

Gaddafi will lead to new information being discovered which

may shed further light on the Lockerbie conspiracy.

When we hear that al-Megrahi's family was in contact, of what was

the extent of that? East Renfrewshire in last spoke to Mr

McGahey on August 8th and over the last two years they have been in

regular contact. I asked what this regular contact means, weekly,

monthly, and the councils say it is up to them, he has to be available

for them to speak to him. That is why they are relatively reactor --

relaxed at this stage about his whereabouts. They understand the

situation in Tripoli and so far, they say, he hasn't yet breached

the conditions of his licence. Thank you.

Police in Perth have detained a 36- year-old man in connection with the

death of a 26-year-old, named locally as Sandy Kelly. Mr Kelly

was found lying seriously injured with stab wounds in the town's Bute

Drive last night. He was taken to Perth Royal Infirmary where he died

a short time later. The 36-year-old was detained this afternoon and

police inquiries are continuing. An inquiry has found that a string

of "calamitous" modifications contributed to the deaths of three

men in a fire on a fishing boat in Fraserburgh. Fire alarms had been

switched off and a fire door left open on the Vision 2 when a heater

set alight three years ago. Kevin The aftermath of the fire which

killed three people and though nothing obvious can be seen from

the quayside, on board the devastation was extensive. Today's

report concludes it started when events in a fan heater became

blocked. Many other failings were highlighted, but this industry

representative says much has already been done to improve safety.

We did several things immediately. We wrote a code of practice which

we hope everybody will pay attention to. We placed the

greatest emphasis on risk assessment and we have a new safety

officer. These foreign workers were in Fraserburgh harbour when the

fire happened. Sleeping on boats had become commonplace, but safety

procedures did not reflect that. The report found a fire door on

board the Vision 2, which would have slowed the spread of the fire,

had been hooked open. It found an escape hatch had been seized up and

there had been no it inspection programme to spot that and the

power to the fire alarm system had been turned off. A routine practice

when ships were tied up. The Vision 2 is at sea now with the skipper on

board, but I spoke to him briefly this afternoon by satellite phone.

He told me he felt he had done nothing wrong three years ago and

had bought the boat in good faith. He described what happened as

simply a tragic accident. In fact, both these organisations, the

report says, had become confused about who was responsible for

inspecting certain areas of the vessel which included heaters. As a

result, neither was doing it, a situation we are now told has been

rectified. The Vision 2 is now a very different boat with a fresh

lick of paint and modifications inside. Modernisation which this

industry says has happened across the fleet.

You're watching Reporting Scotland from the BBC. Still to come before

7pm: He's at it again - why a Scots

adventurer is making his way to the They haven't yet played the match,

but Rangers are celebrating a small victory over there you would

believe opponents. And we have some crumbs of comfort

for Hearts as they prepare to face some of these men after last week's

5-0 drubbing by Spurs. Scotland's prosecutors and police

forces are being criticised for failing to do more to stamp out

racist hate crime. It follows the refusal by the crown office to

investigate failures in a case involving the killing of an Asian

delivery driver. Scotland's top policemen are also facing pressure

to investigate how it can also learn from mistakes over the death

I am sorry, I am sorry. apologies to the family of Simon

San were an attempt to improve processes and to mend ethnic fences,

but they were also a concession of substantial failure. The force

investigated 39 allegations against officers in the case, making 20

recommended changes. We will work even harder, listen even more and

show even more courage in the service of all our communities.

service of all our communities. comes amid an increase over the

last decade of the number of charges for race crime in Scotland.

According to the Scottish government, between 2000 and 2001,

there were 1036 charges made in A similar level from the previous

A similar level from the previous four years in 2009-10, but a 400%

increase in a decade. This is the man whose punch caused the delivery

driver Simon San to die. He attacked Mr San outside his Chinese

takeaway. Tonight it has emerged the Crown Office and the family's

lawyer have different account of exactly when he made racist

comments about Mr San. The Crown Office says there was insufficient

evidence to charge him with a racially motivated attack, which

could have meant a longer prison sentence. The pressure is mounting

on the Crown to make the details public. I think we need full

explanations from the constabularies about their

processes and we need a full explanation from the Lord Advocate.

Once these are in the public domain, we can see where we go from there.

If the explanations are unsatisfactory, there might be room

for an independent inquiry. police launch their investigation,

one officer said this. Be it was just one punch and the gentleman

fell badly and injured his head. It was at random and minor assault,

although consequences were severe. But after the inquiry, it was

forced to concede mistakes had been made. The concern tonight is that

without having held its own investigation, how confident can

the Crown Office believe that its processes don't also need updating

to prevent others suffering like the family of Simon San.

Public bodies such as the NHS, colleges and local authorities are

failing to handle complaints correctly, according to a watchdog.

The Scottish Public Services Ombudsman says it upheld too many

complaints last year and the NHS is the worst offender. Our health

correspondent, Eleanor Bradford, is here now.

Specifically, what are the problems? The problem is that the

Scottish public services ombudsman should be their last stop when you

have a complaint. What you should do, what you have to do, is go to

the relevant public service first, go through their complaints

procedure. If they were handling these complaints correctly, you

would expect very few to get as far as the Ombudsman. But the ombudsman

told us today that unfortunately, that is not the case. We are up

holding 34% of the cases that come to us and that is far too high. We

are the last stage people come to with complaints and I would expect

that number to be somewhere around 10% to and did cent and the most.

That means far from getting things right first time, a lot of local

authorities are getting things wrong first time. What can be done

about this? If we take the worst offender, the NHS, of all the

complaints that reached the ombudsman regarding the NHS, half

of those were upheld. The ombudsman has recommended that in the case of

the NHS and everyone else, they take these complaints more

seriously so they can learn lessons. But with the NHS, there has been a

debate for about a decade about whether it should move to a no-

fault compensation scheme, the idea being that would speed up the

complaints process and make the NHS less reluctant to say sorry. A

report decided it was a good idea, but we are still waiting for the

Scottish government to tell us what Police investigating the death of

an Aberdeenshire woman in Memphis say the incident doesn't appear to

be suspicious. The body of 41 year old Gerrie Lawrie was discovered in

an apartment block yesterday. Police say there are no signs of

foul play. A man who drowned his ex-fiancee in

a bath after she told him she loved another man has been jailed for

life. 27 year-old Michael Morrison admitted holding Sharon Brown's

head under water at her home in Clydebank in December while her two

children were in the property. Former nightclub bouncer Morrison

was told he must serve a minimum of 13 years for murdering the 27 year-

old nurse. Police are making renewed efforts

to identify a man whose body was found in woods in Dumfries and

Galloway last year. The badly decomposed body was discovered by

walkers near the village of Canonbie in December. Detectives

are launching a poster campaign across the UK.

There's a lot of rubbish at the Edinburgh festivals. Not a

criticism of the acts but a comment on the amount of waste resulting

from huge events staging shows at all times of the day and night. So

you wouldn't think it'd be easy for festivals to go green. But a series

of iniatives are helping them reduce their impact on the

environment. Our arts correspondent Pauline McLean reports. With

performers and audience is jetting in from all over the world, and

thousands of shows staged, Edinburgh festivals make a huge

dent in the environment. Venues like this one thing the damage can

be limited. In the last tee years we have halved the amount of

electricity we use. -- last the three years. We have to make sure

there is a proper joined-up initiative as to recycling paper.

Across the city arts festivals are sharing advice. The book festival

cut its electricity by 56 % by changing its generator. Arts

festivals are all about bringing people together from all over the

world and sharing ideas with them. One of the things we're keen to do

is show people that if the Edinburgh festivals can be

environmentally sustainable, they can be as well. It is a fantastic

chance when the out of their day- to-day routine how easy it is to be

environmentally conscious. Here in the Royal Mile the handout

thousands of leaflets for thousands of shows for work every day.

unique visual things. We could invest in a megaphone! You can get

the gimmicks and posters but it is fliers that people keep. We have to

do it or the show would be empty. Can pin us are working on a virtual

Royal Mile. Until then the paper's staff is recycled at the end of

every festival. A man dubbed the Naked Rambler has

been jailed for more than 600 days after enjoying less than 60 seconds

of freedom. Steven Gough was arrested moments after being

released from Perth prison. He was found guilty at the town's Sheriff

court of disorderly conduct by refusing to wear clothes. Gough has

now spent much of the last decade behind bars.

The Defence Minister has started a two-day visit to the Hebrides

missile range to discuss plans to update it. The range is run by

Qinetiq. It was threatened with closure two years ago. The Ministry

of Defence says his future is secure for five years at least. 200

people are employed. It is the largest missile testing area in the

Not content with cycling the world, Scottish adventurer Mark Beaumont

is nearing the end of another epic journey. For the past month he has

been attempting to row 450 miles across the Arctic Ocean with five

others. They set off from Canada at the end of July and turnout just 50

miles from their destination - the taking a well-earned breather on a

tiny island. We cut up with him as he rested in the back of his rowing

boat. I asked him how much of a challenge it has been. This could

not be more different than pedalling around the world. It is a

team effort appeared in the artic. I am rowing but this is an

explanation. Before it idents the Adventure World but here we are in

the unknown, tried to do something which would lead been possible 10

years ago because of the ice. had been the most memorable

moments? For me, some of the sides. The wildlife up here it is utterly

incredible. Polar bears, walruses, some of the bird life. It is an

incredibly vibrant part of the world and quickly changing. It is

been a great team and everything is going well. Just a beautiful part

of the world to see. frightening moments? There have

been a few times when we had been in the middle of ice fields and it

moves very fast with the wind and currents. We're in a tiny port. So,

the scariest moment so far away in the nearly get trapped by the sea

ice. We have managed to steer clear of any real danger and we are not

too far from our final destination now. You can catch up with the

latest on his adventure on our website.

Now to endeavours in the sporting world. Here is David. If he thinks

that his Taft - she should try qualifying for the Europa League.

Our three teams are preparing for their next ties. Rangers are

already celebrating a small victory because European foot of's

governing body has rejected the complaints by their opponents

Maribor. The question the eligibility of Carlos Boccanegra a

plane for the team. Carlos Boccanegra red - the new signing

with his name in the headlines. The complaint from Maribor was that he

was ineligible for the first leg last week in Slovenia as he had not

been given the UK work permit. The player was confident things had

been done by the book. Am confident that Rangers went through the

process and did all the right stuff to make sure an eligible to play. I

cannot worry about that. I am confident with Rangers. It is not a

big deal for me. Obviously, they SFA contacted UEFA up on Thursday

to say that Carlos could play. We're happy with that. This

afternoon UEFA throughout the complaint on a technicality - it

had not be lodged within 24 hours of the game in question. Maribor

still have three days to appeal the decision. This Slovenian side

arrived in Glasgow this morning. Rangers, however, are still

favourites. It is all aboard the battle bus for the main event

tomorrow night at Ibrox. Celtic answers on for the second

leg against their tie against Sion. Their distinctive leisure wear made

them easy to spot -- easy to spot amongst their holidaymakers at

Glasgow airport today. He still could not score against enjoy is in

a few days ago. But there assistant manager is not worried. We want to

be an attacking team. If we do not score goals, we need to keep a

clean sheet. Defensively we had not been bad. Even if we had not scored

for a couple of games, we have the confidence to know we're good

enough to go forward. Celtic's tie with Sion is delicately balanced

but we cannot see the same for the hardest on him was burnt game.

Spurs are up five nil up after the game yesterday. -- Hearts versus

Tottenham Hotspur game. We did so well on the first leg, it has given

me a chance to rest most of the players that I can rest. I have

made lots of changes. Anyone who is fit and has not played it will play.

I will try round up a few more bodies to play.

Now one of the biggest Scottish- based events on the European tour -

the Johnnie Walker championship starts tomorrow at Gleneagles. Our

reporter is there. It was worse 10 minutes ago with

the pouring rain. We had best - a place no one wants to be - the

bunker on the 18th. Those chasing their 1.4 million pound title will

have to avoid this one. The Italian a Eduardo Molinari is defending the

crown he won their 12 months ago. He birdied the last three holes. He

made Colin Montgomery's Ryder Cup squad. Last year there was a lot of

pressure because of the tournament and because of the Ryder Cup, so

this year and there is only the tournament to play for her. I am

defending so there is a little bit more pressure. I really like this

course and the place, so I can play well here. 25 Scots in the field

this time around, all playing with the beautiful Perthshire hills as

the backdrop. The Scots are led by the local lad in these parts -

Colin Montgomery, hoping not just to compete but also to contend.

like to think so. There is no reason why not if I get my putting

right. -- I would like to think so. We will see what happens. I am 48

but it would be lucky -- lovely to contend again which means a top-ten

finish. Colin reiterated that it faster be captain for the Ryder Cup

in 2014, he said he would say yes. The tee of tomorrow or is at 7:30am

tomorrow. Thank you very much. That is all I

have for you tonight. Straight to the weather forecasts now.

Good evening. Sunshine and showers Good evening. Sunshine and showers

was the order of the day today. There was this band of rain that

was pushing across the country, some fairly heavy bursts end there.

We will continue with that aim. -- that theme. Some sunshine for the

end of the day. In the south of the country sunshine Ms the TA. That

band of rain will push across the country. Most places will become

dry overnight. There may be some cooler spots in parts of the

Highlands. A largely dry and bright start tomorrow with some sunny

spells. Coastal showers developing of a night will become more

widespread through the morning. Some of those will be heavy and

possibly thundery. There will be good sunny spells as well. A fairly

decent day. Killer in the North and Northern Isles. Largely dry for

much of the day. -- cooler in the north. There is this area a fairly

heavy rain but that should just skirts the coast. In to tomorrow

evening, most of the shares will die out and we will see a largely

dry night. -- most of the showers. Friday will see a mixture of

sunshine and showers, much like tomorrow. Starting off dry and

bright, then temperatures will rise and showers will kick-off. Saturday

- a different day, when the everywhere. The north east of the

country will have a fairly wet day. Drier and brighter in the south.

Sunday sees an improvement. Goodbye. A summary of tonight's top stories.

The Libyan capital has seen some of the most intense clashes as rebel

the most intense clashes as rebel forces come under renewed fire from

dye her supporters of a Colonel Gadaffi. He is in hiding but his

foreign minister has conceded his reign is at an end.

Scottish officials are trying to establish the fate of the Libyan

Lockerbie bomber. An investigation has found that a policeman used

excessive force when he dragged a disabled man across the road during

the student protests in London. The Independent Police Complaints